About this book

This book offers a collection of conference articles presented at the Second International Young Scientists Forum on Soil and Water Conservation and ICCE symposium 2018 “Climate Change Impacts on Sediment Dynamics: Measurement, Modelling, and Management” held at Moscow from 27 to 31 August 2018. This conference was organized by World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC) and Lomonosov Moscow State University in cooperation with the International Commission on Continental Erosion of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences and World Large rivers Initiative. Topics in this book cover a wide range of questions related to fluvial geomorphology, water studies, and sediment transport.

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Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Harmonization of the transboundary water resources monitoring is the focus of research efforts. It aims at improving comparability of the assessment of the ecological status of waters, and thus also to more coherently activate action programs of measures.

The Raya graben is located in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, and it is a marginal structural graben of the Red Sea branch of the Ethiopian Rift valley (Fig. 1). The graben is crossed by several rivers, which are dry for the most of the year, and only one perennial, seasonal river. These ephemeral streams originate from the high mountains (highest peak 4003 m asl) on the western shoulder of the graben and dry up in the basin floor where they commonly form large distributary systems (Billi in Geomorphology 85:98–113, 2007).

Nowadays the study of the sediment budget within drainage basins, especially its deformation under the human activity, is one of the topical them (Walling and Collins in Environ Sci Policy 11(2):136–143, 2008; Golosov et al in J Soils Sediments, 2018). That allows estimating the deformation of contaminants area, to identify high-risk areas of soil erosion, silting of artificial reservoirs, controlling of pollutants mobilization and delivery, etc. Such a study can be performed with the morphodynamic analysis, which is based on a morphometric study of drainage basins.

Formation of a flow and loss on slopes, as is known, is provided with a number of factors, leaders among which are characteristics of atmospheric precipitation and a spreading surface (Wischmeier and Smith in Agricultural Handbook, 1978; Gorchichko in J Soil Sci 2:130–134, 1979). Their variability in time and space defines the size of a flow and loss from slopes. Importance and diversity of influence and interaction of the factors defining a flow and loss have found reflection in numerous researches. Were studied both questions on the character of atmospheric precipitation, and questions of an opportunity of forecasting of their characteristics and others.

When modeling channel deformations on the mountain and sub-mountain rivers, it is necessary to take into account the fractional composition of the sediments, since diameters of separate fractions can differ by several orders. In this case, modeling based only on mean diameter can lead to qualitatively and quantitatively incorrect results, which do not correspond to the physics of the phenomenon under consideration. The mathematical and numerical model of transport of sediment and bottom deformations in “shallow water” approximation taking into account sediment heterogeneity is proposed and tested in laboratory experiments and on a real object.

The sediment yield formation in the mountain catchments is a complex process, which is affected by many parameters, such as watershed processes (landslides, glacier ablation), in-channel processes regime, synoptic situation, etc.

“Terrace Greenhouse” (TGH) serves as an efficient agricultural solution to the limited farmland resource caused by the policy of “Converting Farmland to Forest and Grassland” in the hilly area of the Loess Plateau in China. With the influence of the climate change and human, there were the new changes of rainfall erosion in the Loess Plateau in China.

Medium magnitude debris flow phenomena are widespread in the Kola Peninsula Mountains. Most frequently observed types are snowmelt period slushflows and rainfall-induced debris flows. Similar sets of hazardous events are reported for mountainous areas of Scandinavia, Japan, and Northern America.

With the rapid development of traffic, noise and vibration are common phenomena in engineering and cause high-precision system malfunctions and extensive sound environment pollution. Locally resonant structures, in this case, trees, i.e. forests, interact with Rayleigh waves in surprising ways, are observed as natural phononic crystals for elastic waves. Its unique wave-forbidding characteristic provides a new idea for clarifying the mechanism of urban vegetation reduce vibration and low noise.

The current climate change occurs all over the World and leads to an increase of air temperature, amount, intensity and frequency of precipitation, and rainfall erosive factor, and as a consequence to growth of severe floods and erosive events (landslides, mudflows (including lahars)) causing the increase of sediment yield, basin component of sediment yield, and channel transformations.

The Selenga River is the major tributary of Lake Baikal, which contributes about 50 to 60% of the surface water inflow into the lake (Tornqvist et al. 2014; Chalov et al. 2015). Total basin area of the Selenga River is ~450,000 km2 in the boundary region between Northern Mongolia (~64% of the basin) and Southern Siberia (Russia). Runoff formation conditions are various. The upstream part of the basin (Northern Mongolia) is covered by an extensive grassland steppe. The downstream part (Southern Siberia) is mainly covered by forest and permafrost, which is an important source of soil water in summer. Moreover, a huge part of the Selenga River Basin has mountainous topography and is characterized by the large elevation difference (from 600 to 3000 m). Local climate conditions are extremely continental. Winters are long, dry and cold. Average monthly surface air temperature of January is −23.5 ℃. Summers are short and relatively warm. Average monthly surface air temperature of July is 16 ℃. The annual precipitation amount ranges between 300 and 400 mm over the territory. Most of the precipitation falls in July and August. Rainfall is the major source of Selenga River runoff formation (Frolova et al. 2017).

Postglacial fluvial network history of the central Russian Plain is complex and heterogeneous regarding both temporal framework and leading development agents. Modern valley systems inherit many relic features including excessively large width inconsistent with present runoff conditions, highly elevated terraces (both depositional and erosional), thick bottom sedimentary infills partly incised by modern gullies, inactive headwaters almost infilled and disconnected from the presently active fluvial network, etc. Such distinct footprints can be related to much higher intensities of fluvial and other associated processes in the past.

When planning irrigation and irrigation measures, a comprehensive study of the territory, in particular - the soil cover and the nature of the relief is necessary. Since, if the irrigation process is not properly organized, a number of negative consequences for the soil cover (erosion, water logging, secondary salinization, etc.) can be caused. Irrational and incorrect actions can lead to serious consequences for the soil state: as a result of erosion, the top layers of the soil are degraded, agronomically valuable soil aggregates are destroyed, colloid fractions and fine earth are washed out, hummus, nutrients, and trace elements are reduced. In this regard, the main objective of the work is a comprehensive survey of the territory planned for use in irrigation reclamation using methods of field and agrochemical soil studies in combination with GIS technologies and remote sensing to identify potentially erosion-hazardous areas.

Diatoms or Bacillariophyceae are a major group of microalgae and the most common types of phytoplankton. More than 200 genera of diatoms are known, with an estimated 100000 species. Diatoms with other water inhabitants are used as saprobity indicator species in the monitoring of the water quality.

The aim of this study is to create the hydrological model for Western Dvina (Russian part) catchment based on open-source global spatial and climatic data to calculate water balance components and estimate the amount of dissolved and suspended matter flow through the Russian Federation border. This investigation is a part of the MANTRA Rivers project between Russia, Ukraine, and EU.

The analysis of water flow and sediment transport under the influence of hydrotechnical construction on the river Amur near Blagoveshchensk and Heihe cities was carried out, based on two-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling using STREAM_2D software (author V. Belikov et al., Russia). Two modeling scenarios were considered: with the complex of dams near the Chinese island of Big Heihe and without. Placing of dams providing the concentration of the flow in the main river channel, increasing erosion in the mainstream below the confluence near the left bank.

Wet subtropics is among the areas usually characterized by numerous and intense exogenic geomorphic processes. Estimation of their rates and dynamics is one of the most important tasks for both fundamental understanding of sediment redistribution and applied issues of local land use.

Quantification of runoff and soil loss variabilitities are important aspects of hydrological processes. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of six consecutive storms on variability of descriptive characteristics of runoff and soil loss under different rainfall intensities. To achieve the objectives, a set of laboratory experiments were conducted using rainfall simulator and a 6 × 1-m erosion plot with a depth of 0.5 m and a slope of 5%. The rainfall intensities of 30 and 90 mm/h were applied to a silt loam soil sampled from Kojour rangeland watershed, northern Iran. The results showed a decreasing trend in Coefficient of Variation (CV) of runoff volume with increase in rainfall intensity from almost 50 to 28%. A decreasing trend was also observed for CV of soil loss in consecutive storms from almost 65 to 50% under rainfall intensity 30 to 90 mm/h. The results further indicated a 1.8- and 1.3-times increase respectively for CV of runoff volume and CV of soil loss under low intensity compared to those of 90 mm/h in different consecutive storms. The comparative analysis of the results using One-Way ANOVA also verified significant difference (p > 0.05) among runoff amounts in both rainfall intensities except in 2nd and 6th consecutive storms. In addition, amounts of soil loss were not significantly (p > 0.05) different in 3rd, 4th and 6th consecutive storms under rainfall intensities of 30 and 90 mm/h.

Numerous engineering and water management facilities are located in the part of the Lena River valley near Yakutsk with a total length of 75 km (from the gauge of Tabaga to the gauge of Kangalassy). For their safe functioning, it is necessary to take into account the features of the water and channel regime, which led to a large number of studies of channel processes in this area (Chalov 2016), including mathematical modeling methods (Zaitsev 2004). The presented study of the dynamics of bottom changes based on the hydrodynamic model STREAM_2D, adapted for this part of the Lena River, and horizontal changes estimations using the satellite images will increase the quality of practical recommendations about possible engineering solutions to reduce the negative impact of channel processes.

Soil erosion is an important threat in Southern Italy and requires soil conservation strategies to reduce costs of its on-site and off-site impacts. These strategies need reliable methods to predict soil erosion risk that is frequently based on models of different origin and effectiveness.

Climate changes lead to an increase of extreme events frequency and intensity (hurricanes, floods, extreme rainfall, and force), and as a consequence to the intensification of erosion processes both in the mountainous and plain regions.

Climate change is one of the main factors of the modern erosion. Much less investigated the influence of accelerated erosion on climate change due to greenhouse gases emission. Healthy modern soils are the sinks for atmospheric carbon. Washed-out and buried soils (stratozems) are the sources of atmospheric carbon. The modern emission of carbon dioxide from this formed by accelerated erosion pool of carbon is small and does not affect significantly the CO2 budget in the atmosphere.

The empirical three-dimensional hydraulic gully erosion and thermo-erosion model GULTEM was used to calculate the surface runoff optimal to form ancient periglacial dry valleys on the East European plain.